All truth passes through three stages:First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed.Third, it is accepted as self-evident!

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Remarkable
things are happening in the world. We might call this moment a time
of convergence – i.e., when events and the people through whom they
unfold are brought identifiably within the scope of a supramental
framework in the form of what is called a model of the universe.
But this would not be discernible if we did not have certain tools
of Knowledge which allow us to bring the multiple dimensions of our
world of time and space into focus in this model.

As these
Chronicles and Updates have proven, the Mother’s original design and
plan of the Inner Chamber conform to Sri Aurobindo’s description of
the contents of thesoul, -the Chamber ‘closed
and mute’ of his epic poem, Savitri. The Mother simply
penetrated that sacred precinct to provide humanity with this
special and unique model of the Cosmic Truth. For it is in
the inner depths, the cave in the heart where Guha stands that the
truth foundation of the universe is discovered. Veil after veil is
removed as one plunges within to the core of material creation, and
not to the Beyond, because the soul is only experienced in
material creation – this universe of 9.

The Mother defined that number-power to the author/convenor as
‘creation in matter’. And it is with this clue which she provided in
1971, the clue that revealed the more arcane mysteries of the 9,
that the door was unlocked and one could enter the chamber of the
soul.

The Mother bequeathed to humanity aSoul in the form of an
architectural masterpiece. But as we know, the building she set on
its way in Auroville did not live up to this sublime truth. In every
way it was disfigured. Thus today in place of this greatest of all
architectural revelations, we have a faithful reproduction of the
ego and not the soul.

Energies continue to be poured into that endeavour by the community
and its faithful followers. One wonders what purpose is served. How
and why is it that a choice can be made consciously to put
this shadow in place of the Mother’s revelation? Further, the
question that arises is why this aberration came to pass at all? How
is it that the Mother did not draw to her side the genial architect,
Christopher Alexander, for example, instead of what we have had to
contend with? For we have
his own words to describe the aspects of human nature that interfere
with the descent of a building which in his vision embodies a
‘living centre’.

‘It is
very hard to allow the wholeness to unfold. To do it, we must pay
attention, all the time, only to the wholeness, which exists in what
we are doing. That is hard, very hard. If we allow ourselves the
luxury of paying attention to our own ideas, we shall certainly
fail… The things which can and do most easily get in the way, are my
own idea, my thoughts about what to do, my desires about what
the building “ought” to be, or “might” be, my striving to make it
great, my concern with my own thoughts about it, my exaggerated
attention to others people’s thoughts. All this can damage the
building, because it replaces the wholeness which actually exists at
any given stage with some “idea” of what it ought to be.
‘The reason why I must try and make the building as a gift to God is that
this state of mind is the only one which reliably keeps me
concentrated on what is, and keeps me away from my own
vainglorious and foolish thoughts.’ (The Nature of Order,
Book 4, p.304)

We know that the architects and the community involved with the
Matrimandir were not in the poise Christopher Alexander describes
during the execution of the construction. Alexander states that it
is hard to hold on to this ‘state of mind’. But isn’t that what
could and should have been done when these instruments were given
this unique gift by the Mother? Christopher Alexander emphasises
time and again in the last Book of his magnum opus, The Nature of
Order, that the builder must execute in this poise: ‘The core
of this necessary state of mind is that you make each building in a
way which is a gift to God. It belongs to God. It does not belong to
you. It is made to serve God, to glorify God. It is not made to
glorify you…’ (Ibid, p. 304)
This was not
written by a yogi or a follower of any known path, much less the
Mother’s. It is based on his own experience, his discoveries of the
true nature of architecture and the poise the builder must maintain
for something divine to imbue the creation. Throughout his writings
one hears echoes of the Vedic Age. His description of those
centres as ‘blazing ones’, ‘blazing furnaces’ is a purely Vedic
seeing. This western architect, with no connection to the
Mother or Sri Aurobindo, has experienced the essence of the Vedic
Agni, not as a concept or a philosophical formulation, but as a
living truth. He is not Indian and therefore cannot be said to
be mouthing a tradition he has inherited but not earned. Yet this
western professor emeritus at the University of California at
Berkeley has lived the Vedic experience.
The question one may legitimately ask is why the Mother
did not draw into her entourage such a person? After all, it was in
the 1970s and 80s that most of his philosophy of architecture was
formulated – the very time that the new cosmology took shape which
provided the keys of Knowledge to understand the Mother’s creation.
And let us not forget that those were the years when a ‘distilling’
process was in effect to ‘sort out the people’ who could build her
temple, once her entourage had refused to comply. Surely Christopher
Alexander was feeling the effects of that specialised action of the
Supramental Shakti precisely in his field of endeavour, though
unbeknown to him.
But in India this was not meant to be; her action was
deflected. Instead we had to bear time and again mocking, scoffing,
ridicule, and bad will, on the part of those handling Matrimandir
matters; only to
discover now, in this time of convergence, that there is at least
one architect in the world who can perhaps understand.
Christopher Alexander writes about the effects of a
wrong poise in a manner that closely resembles our own experience
regarding the Matrimandir: ‘All of this might make me famous as
an architect, but it damages the building. It will make me replace
care and humble concern for doing just what is required with a frame
of mind which wants to shout, just slightly, at each moment, while
the design is unfolding. This problem potentially affects every
single one of the 100,000 steps which I go through to make the
building. So it will infect it very deeply, change its character not
in a subtle way, but altogether…’ (Ibid, p.304-5)
The Matrimandir Action Committee, particularly this
author and convenor, were continuously criticised and maligned (CIC
4, for example) for insisting that every detail of the Mother’s plan
must be respected in the interests of its unity – what
Alexander calls ‘wholeness’. When this is contravened he writes,
‘The effect is tiny, but its impact is enormous.’ (Ibid, p.305)
What would Christopher Alexander have to say about the
not-so-tiny alterations in the Mother’s design, about what the
totally altered ‘stand’ introduced; or the transparent ‘crystal’ in
lieu of a translucent globe; or the 23m diameter instead of 24, as
she requested time and again; or the altered entrance from a 15-step
rise into the Chamber to two doors piercing the walls? One after
another the builders imposed their ‘ideas’ and brought into the
design not only ‘tiny’ deviations from the true inspiration that
Christopher Alexander describes, but major, fundamental changes
while all the time knowing that the Mother insisted there should be
‘no changes’.
What is far worse – and which certainly an architect of
Christopher Alexander’s calibre could never fathom – is that the
builders and administration insisted throughout the construction
process that what they were building was ‘the Mother’s original’.
This, by far, is the truly unbelievable aspect of the saga. In view
of what MAC has brought to light, would there be any legitimate
reason to continue pouring energy and money into that shadow
building? Ignorance of the facts can no longer be claimed.
Be that as it may, the question that remains is why the
Mother would not draw into the endeavour an architect such as
Alexander with whom no such problems would have arisen, as was the
case when she constructed the Ashram guest house, Golconde. In
Update 9 this question was partially answered. Indeed, the
distortions and unpleasantness that resulted provided the right
field to bring down the Knowledge and to thus allow the Third in
the Solar Line to fulfil her role of ‘bridge builder’ between the
old and the new.
The Mother
never explained how her architectural plan could further the ‘future
realisation’ – nor did anyone ask; after the 18-day confrontation,
she dropped the matter. It was clear that another way would have to
be found, beyond the confines of that old creation, - indeed, a
new way.
And thus it came to pass that with the Mother’s inspired
and unique legacy in hand all the contours of the New Way were
revealed. This is the work of the third stage of the Descent,
without which we would be left with nothing but shadows in place of
light.

Inadequacy of the Old Responses
It would be simplistic to reply that ‘the world was not ready’ for
the Mother’s creation to take its place in Auroville. This
explanation would be part and parcel of the old way. In the new
creation each thing is in its proper place within the whole.
Above all, both positiveand negative
serve the purposes of the One, that ‘blazing furnace’ of
Christopher Alexander’s experience. The truth be told, it is
precisely because the world WAS ready that
everything unfolded as it did: the old consciousness served the One
in equal measure as the new; but by negation which created the
required conditions: a field for the third stage to begin and the
task to be completed. This, and no other, has been the purpose
behind such an obvious, and otherwise incomprehensible, defiance.

‘If we are
willing to recognise the ground [the underlying unity], whether we
call it God or something else, and recognise that this light is
behind all things which are at one with themselves, then we may say
simply, that a thing is beautiful to the extent that it reveals this
one.
‘A massive building or a small one…has life, is deep, affects us,
moves us to tears, to awe, exactly to the extent that it is a
picture of that God behind all things. If you see the watery pale
yellow sunlight shining behind dark grey clouds…and you see in that
light, the original light of the universe – then you may say, in
still different terms, that sometimes, very occasionally, an artist
who weaves a carpet, or who shapes a beautiful building, or who
paints a tile, manages to make something which has this same light
in it, where this same self is shining out… he has made something as
close to a picture of God or self as it can be… (Ibid, p.316.)

In the just published Volume 3 of the series, The New Way,
written 22 years ago, the poise is described that the artist of the
new creation must attain if s/he is to be an instrument in the
unfolding of superior forms of beauty and light. The following
portion is taken from Chapter 17, page 234, entitled, Creativity
and the Gnostic Being:

‘Thus we
come to an aspect of this study which deals with the creation of new
art forms, new methods of communication, new cultural and
technological expressions which evolve from an individual whose
consciousness-being is poised in an axial balance and therefore who
does not create in the midst of the turbulence that the lower levels
of consciousness throw up when inspiration descends into these
inferior and hitherto unillumined planes of consciousness. The
first prerequisite therefore is a realisation of one’s core, one’s
true stable constant, one’s inner Chamber, - even as in the Mother’s
Temple the inner Room holds that core from which the lines of a
perfect equilibrium are extended to the outer form via Time and
Space fields.
‘Admittedly this is a complex and difficult process. It is the goal
of the integral yoga, - the harmonisation of all parts of the being,
of all four planes of existence. It is the acquisition of a true
centre, a real and not an illusory inner luminary around which the
individual finds his or her balance and participates in the
evolutionary movement nourished by this truth-conscious source and
thus serving in the establishment of a society of gnosis. He remains
no longer a tool for the perpetuation of the old mental creation
that orbits the ego. Therefore the way in which to engage in the
creative process in the effort to establish a new order is the one
described throughout this volume: the [centre] of each individual
must be found, which permits the aspirant to locate his or her place
in the larger framework of the gnostic society, - on the basis of
true collaboration and harmonious participation, adding to the
community the light of a real inner worth and the power to give
expression in life to this luminous soul-power.
‘The supreme difficulty lies in the fact that the human
race, as a whole, orbits a void in the centre of its collective
consciousness, which in turn is representative of the void in the
consciousness-being of each individual. Energies collapse into this
void at a certain point in the march of Time…which is the real
dilemma of the human race, the crux of the problem of karma, for
this collapse and subsequent compression defies change.

‘The void
that is then unveiled in the ordinary human being cannot sustain the
subsequent journey through Time in order to complete the Circle, or
to experience whole time. Thus this precious energy of Time
which is released either in death, or sex, or whatever, simply falls
into this void, collapses like a mighty star in the heavens. It then
compresses itself into a knot, a virtual black hole, and gradually
defies all effort to become unravelled. After numerous passages
through the Circle, after countless completions of the 9-cycle, this
central Knot is so tight, so fixed that it cannot be undone in this
lifetime with the eye of awareness awake in this physical universe.
It draws upon itself all the areas of the being and finally succumbs
to death. But this death is proper to all four planes of existence.
Each part of the being experiences the collapse of energies, has its
own knot, as it were. Thus, for a new society to emerge we see very
clearly that the individual members must know the means by which
this void in consciousness is replaced by a fecund, creative womb.
This means, first and foremost, that creation itself must be
accepted, this Body of the Absolute. Next, it must be accepted that
the purpose of incarnation is to live the experience of the Absolute
in creation and that the human being can and will serve as the
channel for this truth-conscious experience of God in material
creation.
‘The artist of the new society is one therefore who creates on the
basis of a fecund womb in the centre of his or her being. Thus it is
understood that the realisation of one’s Godhead is fundamental if
new forms are to manifest. Indeed, a member of the society becomes a
vehicle through whom the Creator creates and each artistic
expression is reflective of this process, the same as the creation
itself which is simply an unfolding from within, from the
Seed, and a constant flowering from this luminous Bija in an act of
utter spontaneity.
‘In the ideal society the multiple aspect of creation is gloriously
expressed in the varied manifestations of the community’s cultural,
artistic and intellectual products. But this means that such
creations come into being from the core of psychic plenitude and not
the void we now know. At present only rarely is this the basis of
any artistic and intellectual expression. Indeed, it is safe to say
that we have not known this pure source as the fount of inspiration
at all. In these volumes we have used the Mother’s Chamber as an
example of such an act of creation from a fecund central womb of
consciousness in order to offer the student a concrete example of
the emergence of a pure element from the plane of truth seen in the
light of the soul; and how, when the consciousness is not disturbed
by vital and mental turbulence, the result is a true and faithful
reproduction of that element in our physical world. The Mother’s
consciousness, being perfectly poised, did not throw up stormy
currents in the act of seeing and subsequent translation of the
object seen into the measure of our universe and our solar system.
But in this example we do see how the architects obscured the
creation by their own waves of unconsciousness. And we also see that
in order to appreciate the true nature and worth of the Mother’s
creative act, a consciousness free from turbulence is also needed.
Both artist and observer must be poised in the stable core; the
observed and the observer merge in the experience of fulfilling
Oneness…’ (The New Way, Volume 3, Chapter 17, ‘Descent of
Divinity and the Flowering of Godhead’).

Conclusion
We must close this series with a paradox. To attempt to unravel its
complex sense we shall use the descent of the Mother’s Chamber as
the experimental field where we may test our understanding, insofar
as it is ‘the symbol of the future realisation’ and must therefore
hold the light that we need to illumine what may be obscure for the
present.
It is disturbing for some residents of Auroville and the
Ashram, particularly for those involved in the construction of
Matrimandir, to read these Chronicles. They pretend that MAC has had
no impact on their work ‘for the Mother’, and they therefore
continue unperturbed, as if nothing had transpired to cause any
doubt in themselves or in the community regarding their activities. Time and
again MAC has stated that, apart from all else, the really
unacceptable aspect to these thirty years of involvement with the
Mother’s temple has been the deception surrounding the
execution. To date there is no attempt to clear the air and seek a
way to rectify at least this aspect of the problem. In normal
society, given the fact that public funds are involved, this would
be the least one would expect. But not so with a community that
pretends to have attained great spiritual heights. Arrogance appears
to reign supreme; and that alone would preclude any possibility of
those involved to be or to have been channels for the creative
process described above. There was not only turbulence caused by
this arrogance; it was a veritable tsunami! In such a circumstance,
naturally the Mother’s vision suffered the fate of a total
distortion.
But, as stated above, the true creative process in the
Gnostic Being is one that involves both observer and observed. This
means that just to appreciate the higher aspects of the Chamber, if
they had been incorporated in the Auroville construction, that
observer would have to be poised in the right consciousness as well.
In this lies the experience of oneness.
The matter becomes more complex, however, in terms of a
descent where an entirely new Model of the Universe is to be
the beacon light for the future. When Christopher Alexander laments
that physics and its resultant cosmology, developed over the past
300 years, has brought the human being to accept a purposeless
mechanistic view of the world, he is absolutely correct. And
further, when he, like other perceptive seekers, insists that a
new cosmology is demanded in order to rectify this wrong
direction imposed by physicists and cosmologists whose models do
nothing to heal the separative consciousness and offer a vision of
oneness in the place of the disunity we now know, he is once again
perfectly in tune with the New Way.
But where we part ways is in the model he offers.
Interestingly, he is an architect, and the Mother’s vision with its
accompanying new cosmological formula, is precisely in the form of
AN ARCHITECTURAL MODEL. Thus Alexander can appreciate its value
given his approach to both architecture and cosmology. And this
brings us back to the paradox.
Totally lacking in Alexander’s latest model (2004) is
TIME. Thus, when he writes of ‘living centres’ and a dynamic
model, and yet makes no mention of the Time Factor and does not seek
to integrate that into his model, we cannot see how this would help
change matters effectively to alter our perception of the world.
However, the Mother’s model does precisely that: She reveals the
means by which time and space are harmonised and become equal and
complementary parts in this revolutionary and unique model.
But the matter is not so simple. For the paradox lies in
the fact that if Time is to be incorporated then precision of
measurement isindispensable: without that
precision – which the Mother again and again insisted upon – Time is
nowhere in the building. And for measurements to be ‘precise’ in
this new way, which alone among all cosmological models
integrates Time, knowledge is the first and most essential
ingredient.Precision does not arise ‘spontaneously’,
contrary to Satprem’s explanation in a letter to the builders,
simply by their dedication and bhakti, or their poise of
consciousness while building (see CIC 2). Such a structure can only
come into being in full knowledge and with total awareness of
exactly what one is constructing – because that is the meaning
of the next stage for the evolving human consciousness, the Gnosis
of the Supramental. If this were not the case we could not call the
Mother’s revolutionary Model of the Universe the symbol of the
FUTURE realisation.

To approximate this state while building, Hindu tradition does seek
to make Knowledge the foundation of the builder’s approach by
providing elaborate shastras or scriptures to the Stapaththi
(the architect) which seek to capture the higher essence. But it
goes no further; it does not demand that the builder himself reach
that higher state of consciousness. Indeed, he is not allowed to
interfere with the vision of the Seer by interjecting his own ideas
without that same foundation of a yogic realisation and its
accompanying knowledge. However, in this case involving a creation
descending from the truth-consciousness planes, more is demanded.
Observer and observed must partake in equal measure of the
experience. We have in this example a means to understand the
difference between the old and the new, - the new way of the
Supermind where observer and observed are one.
Knowledge is
the foundation of the Gnostic Being. Knowledge, full and complete,
was demanded in order to be able to implement the measurements the
Mother gave; and then only is the indispensable TIME FACTOR brought
into being in a physical structure on Earth to make the model
dynamic.To sum
up, the time factor (which alone makes the Mother’s plan that new
model of the universe at the heart of the new cosmology),
demands precise measurements; precise measurements come into being
only when Gnosis exists, which therefore allows the essential unity
and wholeness to descend. We were naïve to have expected the
architects and builders of Matrimandir to have lived this special
process without proper guidance. But it needs to be stated that they
were offered the Knowledge, which the Mother provided through those
channels she had ‘sorted out’; but not only did they refuse to
accept the offering, their answer was mockery and ridicule. It is
hard to understand how this poise can usher in the new world.
Finally, in
view of this resistance, their only contribution was to provide the
conditions in the field that would force the descent of, precisely,
that special Gnosis. And this did come to pass.
That unique
model of the universe, with its revolutionary cosmology, now
stands at the heart of the Mother’s new creation. It is the eternal
Source, replenishing members of the gnostic society whenever contact
is made with that pool of Light. For those with ‘eyes to see’, the
quality and level of the Knowledge it provides is unmistakable. But
for those who have not attained such levels, it continues to mean
nothing; it is irrelevant to their day-to-day living which goes on
in accordance with their level of consciousness within the
boundaries of the old creation.
Now, after
the activities of the Matrimandir Action Committee, there can be no
misjudging of one for the other. This in itself reveals the sacred
nature of both offerings, negative and positive. Through
their negation humanity has been brought one step closer to the
experience of seeing, it is being uplifted and finally those
former boundaries with their inherent limitations will be expanded
to eventually encompass the new Gnosis, just as the Mother intended,
by Supramental processes where observer and observed live the
experience of Oneness. This is the legacy she bequeathed to us in
her original vision and architectural plan of the Inner Chamber.